So Solid rapper locked up

Rapper Ashley Walters today escaped with an 18-month sentence for carrying a loaded revolver in his car - because it was for his own protection.

The member of garage band So Solid Crew could have been jailed for 10 years but Southwark Crown Court heard he had been attacked by people jealous of his success.

However, he was told that the public had to be protected from gun offences and, with his girlfriend crying in the public gallery, he was sent to a young offenders' institution.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin told him: "I won't be influenced in any way by the so-called reputation of the group. But people who carry guns are liable to use them. Your crime is all too prevalent. For a large number of young people, guns are the order of the day." Walters, 19, had pleaded guilty to possessing a gun, an offence which carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

The court heard he was sitting in his car last July with his girlfriend and two children in Hanover Square, near Oxford Street.

The parking meter had expired and he had a heated argument with traffic warden Olufemi Onafeko, who called the police. An armed response team stopped Walters's car soon afterwards and a Brocock pistol was found in a knotted sock in his girlfriend's handbag. The gun was loaded with five live rounds.

"In expert opinion it was a lethal weapon," said Stephen Holt, prosecuting. Today the court heard for the first time Walters's justification for having the loaded gun. He told police he had been robbed on numerous occasions by youths jealous of his success.

As a schoolboy he had been "kidnapped" by older youths who wanted him to help them rob old people. The "last straw" came just under two years ago when the windows of his car were smashed as he sat outside his home in the early hours and a gun was pointed at his head.

He bought the pistol and ammunition from a man called Jerry at Dreams nightclub in Harlesden for £1,300 - an exorbitant price, according to his lawyer Simon Pentol which demonstrated how naive he was.

Mr Pentol said: "He just gets abuse from local youths jealous of his success."

Walters who appeared on the West End stage in Oliver and in TV series Grange Hill, is said to have told police he was glad he had been caught.

"I am not a gunman or anything," he told them. "I only got it because I was scared. I'm sort of glad this has happened because now you have got it (the gun). It is for the best this has happened."

Mr Pintol said Walters had never fired the gun and didn't know how to use it.

Walters' mother, Pamela Case, told the court: "I don't condone him possessing a firearm but I do understand his fear."